The Asus Zenfone 5Z was one of the first few phones to take on the mighty OnePlus 6 in the 30-40k segment, by providing specs almost equivalent if not better in some areas than the OnePlus 6 for a few thousand rupees cheaper. However, there were a few shortcomings on the software side of things like the lack of gesture navigation which is taking over the traditional on-screen keys in order to provide more real estate.

It looks like Asus has taken the feedback from consumers and has worked on its software and has now enabled support for gesture navigation as a part of its ZenUI custom interface, much like other manufacturers and the newly released Android 9 Pie which by default uses gestures as the means of navigating through the UI.

The new OTA update with build number 80.30.96.71 dated August 14, 2018 brings a new option under Settings > Display > Navigation Bar > Navigation Gestures which when enabled will let you navigate through the UI with gestures.

How this works is if you swipe up from the bottom of the center, where your conventional home button would be, it takes you home. When swiped on either side of the home gesture, it takes you back to the previous screen or to the multitasking tray depending on which side you swipe, which can be customized as per your liking.

After using the gestures for a few minutes, we can say it is pretty polished and doesn’t seem to cause any glitches while navigating through the UI. However, one weird observation is that while the keyboard is open, the navigation bar is persistent at the bottom of the screen, which disappears when the keyboard is closed. Not sure if this is a bug or that is how it is supposed to be.

If you own the Asus Zenfone 5Z, you should be receiving this update soon as it is being rolled out in batches. You can head over to system update and check for updates to see if you have received the OTA yet.

Sumukh Rao Tech Writer A tech fanatic with a hunger for knowledge in the evergrowing field of science and technology. An avid quizzer and a gadget critic who reviews tech from the inside! Keen interest in modding Android devices, Recognized Contributor at XDA Developers.